The Cupcake Thread!

[icekid]

dixie- gorgeous! You''re getting better and better...

 

[steph72276]

InLuv and Dixie, I used chocolate candies and molds that I found at the craft store. I think they turned out really cute. I still need to experiment with fondant, but I don''t know where to get started....
Your cupcakes look great, Dixie!

 

[fisherofmengirly]

My cupcakes look like *butt* compared to those posted here! (I''m just learning how to pipe and it''s usually a hot mess.) Luckily, my friends at work don''t care what they look like and just gobble them up.

I don''t even think I have a picture of the cupcake holder, I don''t think. Maybe one day I''ll make cookies or cupcakes cute enough to present here.

In the mean time, I just watch with my mouth watering!

 

[Skippy123]

Iluv, Dixie and Steph those look fab!!!

Dixie very cute w/ each cuppie w/ a letter.

 

[puffy]

steph those look beautiful!! and yummy!

dixie your cupcakes are so cute!!

 

[lili]

Dixie--
The cuppies with the white cream are so cute!
Love how you add a dash of color w/ those pink dots.

 

[Mara]

dixie aren't the spiky tops fun to make? and super easy. i love doing contrasting color pearls as well. very cute.

steph, nice work with the chocolate molds...i bought a bunch but i never like how they come out so i just never use them. the only ones i have liked is when i use very dark chocolate and a non-detailed mold, aka like a big flower no veining. the smaller the mold and/or the more details then to me it never comes out right. this is why i stick with fondant hehe.

i haven't made cupcakes since easter, but i did make this ridiculously amazing banana pudding layered like a parfait with nilla wafers, bananas and a rich concoction of pudding and whipped cream, from the magnolia cookbook, for a dinner we are having tonite. sinful. and sooo easy. you can google for the recipe. i have been snitching bites from a little 'extra' container i have in the fridge HAHA.

 

[steph72276]

Thanks Mara. I still haven''t played around with fondant yet, but I am going to give it a try. I need to read up on it. Do you know of any websites that will show you how to use it?

The banana pudding looks awesome! Yum

 

[pennquaker09]

Mara, you cheated! My mom cheats and uses pudding too.

 

[InLuv101]

Dixie - Thos cuppies look wonderful! What are the toppers made of on the "Happy Birthday" cupcakes? Thanks for your rec on a cupcake carrier. I found one at Target that I'm happy with.

Mara -- I don't even like banana pudding and my mouth watered when I saw yours! yummy!
******************************************************************************

I made 2 batches of cupcakes this week. The first one was for a family BBQ this weekend. My mom asked me to bring dessert so I made vanilla cupcakes with pink vanilla frosting. The topper is a strawberry whopper. I think they would also be cute for a baby shower for a girl

 

[InLuv101]

#2

 

[InLuv101]

The second batch were cupcakes I wanted to try because they looked fun. I ended up sending them with DH for his students. They are called Buried Alive and were fun to make! Chocolate mint cupcake with chocolate frosting, oreo crumbs and a victim, lol.

ETA: DH''s students are not children, lol. I just realized that it might be weird to send these to kids so I didn''t want you all to think I am a gruesome weirdo, lol.

 

[InLuv101]

Thanks for looking and for the continued inspiration!

 

[whitby_2773]

i''ve never gotten into the cupcake swing of things, but i thought you might like to see these. my friend, nicola, made these for her own birthday last week. i''ve had her vanilla coconut cupcakes in the past, and they are beyond-words-delicious.

aren''t these incredible?

she''s also unbelievably beautiful and one of the nicest women i know.

doncha just hate that?!

 

[Mara]

penn i know! when i wrote it up on my blog i said this was a cheat recipe when i saw it... jello pudding, nilla wafers? surely it wouldnt be GOOD. oh i was wrong. it''s AMAZING beyond words. i make a lot of stuff from scratch as ya''ll know and people had like 3-4 helpings of this. it''s somehow rich but not so rich you think it''s bad for you (3c of heavy cream??). it was supposed to serve 12 but it served 8! really amazing. next time i will experiment with adding coconut cream pudding to it...and i added a bit of rum this time to the wafers ala tiramisu style which was kinda fun. but yeah, people love it and it''s a fast and easy thing for summer. i plan to make it for 30-40 people when we have our housewarming (was going to be this wkd but rained out! and YES we live in california).

whitby, those are like an explosion of spring on edible goodies, yum!!!
inluv, love the strawberry whoppers, those make great toppings (and you can bake them inside even though they harden and flatten to the bottom, people LOVE them inside the cupcakes)

dixie...for fondant, honestly i just started playing around with it. think of it like cookie dough, you can do almost all the same things with cutouts and then you just let it dry. i have gotten really creative with it as well, using things like hole punches to make more detailed designs than the cutters would allow...or cutting them embossing (or the other way around). it''s an easy and fast way to personalize and it''s a good way to burn off stress and/or mentally zone out after a long day! i started with wilton premixed fondants but then i moved to a white satin ice and i color it myself now. hvae not made my own yet as i read it''s kind of a big process and i just bought a big satin ice for like $15 that has lasted me almost 4 months now.

 

[icekid]

whitby- those cuppies are so pretty- like a spring explosion!

Inluv- I am so impressed with your decorating skills, since you just took this up recently. Gorgeous!

Mara- whoppers in the cupcakes? interesting.. do they get soft?

 

[akw94]

Icekid, Skippy, and Puffy, thanks for the compliments! They were fun to make and special since for a family bday!

Steph, thanks! Fondant, from the little I''ve done, is fairly easy. Just buy the pre-made stuff to get started. Buy one of those fondant rollers, they''re nice and small so easy to use w/the fondant. I roll it out on a silpat. My fondant is white so I just add a little bit of color, you need very little. Mix it in and then roll it out. I also use powdered sugar to harden it a bit b/c it''s very humid where I am so I need something. I also use powdered sugar on the mat so it doesn''t get sticky. Once you roll it, you can cut whatever shapes you want. I''ve never applied to a whole cupcake. I recently bought some stamps but haven''t tried them yet. To store it, I''ve been told never put in the ''frig b/c the moisture just soaks into the fondant. You can store in a tupperware container and they seem to last a long time. Also make sure to store your pre-rolled fondant in a ziploc or something sealed so it doesn''t get hard.

Fisher, don''t worry about what they look like. As you said, the most important things is how they taste! Plus, practice really is the key so you''ll get better as you keep making more. I am still amazed how much there is to learn and how much practice it takes to get the results that I''m happy with.

Thanks Lili, I saw this picture that I loved and while mine looked very little like that, I was inspired to do something a little different.

Mara, yes, they were fun to make. I''ve tried it before but never liked that design. With the other color, I think it made a huge difference. Your banana pudding looks great! That is one of my favorite desserts.

InLuv, thanks! The toppers are fondant and the letters are piped on with the same frosting I used for the cupcakes. Glad you found a good carrier! Your cupcakes look great. I really like the Buried Alive ones!

 

[steph72276]

Dixie and Mara, thanks so much for the fondant tips....think I will pick up a pack this weekend and give it a try! Mara....do you know how long they last in a tupperware dish? Thanks!

 

[Porridge]

I know that this was posted aaaaaaaages ago, but I wanted to post about my first red velvet cake experience. I've never heard of it before here, but I thought Mrs Salvo's recipe looked intruiging (vinegar? in cake?? yeah, I'm a novice

). So I baked it and brought it in as a general thank you for the secretaries at work. In an office of three woman, none of whom have a particularly sweet tooth, it was polished off in one hour, flat. Never has such an event occurred! People are still talking about it!

Mrs Salvo, your recipe is now pretty widespread here in Ireland

Yay for Red Velvet Cake!

 

[Jas12]

Iluv-mmm, that pink frosting looks so goooood. and the ''burried alive'' cuppies are hilarious. My class would love them (older students too) I must keep them in mind for Halloween!

dixie--great job girl! Your stuff is looking better each attempt (not that it didn''t look terrific before, but now it''s extra professional

)

Mara--i am going to try that banana pudding this weekend! Looks yummy and it will be a nice mom''s day dessert

Speaking of mother''s day, anyone making cuppies in honor of it? I think i am going to try the flower-bloom design i posted a pic of a month or so ago. I made it with storebought icing last time so this time i''ll do it right and post a pic for y''all...

 

[InLuv101]

Date: 5/8/2009 11:30:10 AM
Author: Jas12
Iluv-mmm, that pink frosting looks so goooood. and the ''burried alive'' cuppies are hilarious. My class would love them (older students too) I must keep them in mind for Halloween!

dixie--great job girl! Your stuff is looking better each attempt (not that it didn''t look terrific before, but now it''s extra professional

)

Mara--i am going to try that banana pudding this weekend! Looks yummy and it will be a nice mom''s day dessert

Speaking of mother''s day, anyone making cuppies in honor of it? I think i am going to try the flower-bloom design i posted a pic of a month or so ago. I made it with storebought icing last time so this time i''ll do it right and post a pic for y''all...

I did make some cuppies for Mother''s Day for the ladies in my office. Will post pics when I get home later.

 

[Mara]

honestly i keep my fondant for months...and no one complains when they eat it, hehee. i keep it in a cool, dry, dark place...in plastic bead containers that i got for like $2.00 each at michaels. so far this seems like the best/easiest way to store it.

so these are not cupcakes but i took a really fun class this wkd at a local sur la table... a croissant class. i have been dying to know how to make them since i''ve taken two trips to Paris in the last year for work, and while the recipe we used wasn''t that fab, learning the techniques was. i took it with one of my friends who is also one of my best baking buddies so it was super fun. i came home that afternoon and made my own batch of dough using another recipe and now i am hooked. i want to try a few more recipes and find one i love.

here is a picture of my own croissants at home outta the oven ...yum!! i did some with choco and some with nutella, the nutella was AMAZING.

 

[Mara]

and me coveting their big super professional silver mixer. they had like 5 of these things in this kitchen. so jealous.

no mothers day cuppies or desserts for me...we''ll be out of town celebrating our 5 year anni. how time flies.

 

[MishB]

Geez Mara, I''d been imagining you as a middle-aged housewife, I didn''t realise you were so hot!

 

[Dandi]

A quick question cupcake lovelies...

Has anyone ever made Black Forest Cupcakes? A friend of mine is having his 30th birthday celebration in a few weeks. He is a black forest fanatic, but is keen on the idea of a cupcake tree! So his lovely girlfriend has asked if I could make some for him. Does anyone know a good/not too tricky recipe? Do you think you''d top it with whipped cream and not cream cheese??

 

[Jas12]

Hi cuppie fans

I didn''t get around to making the labor-intensive flower cuppies i had planned (DH was away this weekend and with a 1 year old underfoot, it was impossible to get much done) but i did do these instead. Fondant cutouts are so quick and cute!

I am still not great at piping. My swirls are always lopsided.

Hope his pic works, iam at work, took it off my facebook page and not off my mac

 

[Jas12]

Dandi--i don't have a recipe but it sound yum, I would do a whipped cream based frosting (stablizied with gelatin) otherwise it wouldnt seem "black forest-ish" enough. Add a good dash of sugar so that it is fairly sweet and i would top them with a steemed maracino cherry (pat the cherries dry)
Here is a good link for whipped cream info

LINKY

ETA--just did a quick recipe search and found these--they look good
BLACK FOREST CUPCAKES

.....

Mara--i tried the banana pudding. It was yummy--i'll keep it on my list of summer-y desserts
You pastries look SO good. And i too would covet a professional mixer. I can't wait to move so i can do my kitchenaid pale-pink stand mixer some justice and put her on display

 

[Jas12]

Another pic of my mom''s day cuppies in the cute baking boxes i found

 

[InLuv101]

Super cute cupcakes Jas! I found those boxes too, so great for giving them as a gift. Where did you get those little ''dots''? I''ve been looking for something similar but didn''t find any at Michael''s.

 

[Dandi]

Yeeeaaah, thankyou JAS! That''s exactly the thing I need. The cuppies will be on display most of the evening until they are attacked, do you think the whipped cream will hold out? I was wondering how cream cheese frosting would taste if I flavoured it with some cherry brandy? Thought it might hold a bit better, whaddya think?

Thankyou for doing that research, you are a doll!!